100 Eternal Moments: Unbreakable Chains
by Taliax
Summary: Platonic Vanitas/whoever for set 5 of Raberba girl's "Other Kinds of Love" challenge. Contrary to his own belief, Vanitas wasn't completely incapable of making friends. Some canon, some AU.
1. Diaper

**A/N: This is the set I've been looking forward to the most, where I finally get to do a challenge about Vanitas! :D Instead of having a set pairing/trio, each drabble will have Vanitas paired up with whoever I feel like, usually Aqua, Ven, or Xion probably. There may also be crossovers here and there since I have this unbreakable habit of platonically shipping Van with ponies… *XD/sweatdrop***

_xX~100 Eternal Moments~Xx_

_Set 5 – Unbreakable Chains_

_76 – Diaper_

"I am _not _changing that brat's diaper," Vanitas informed his mother.

"Oh, is that so?" She raised a thin blue eyebrow, trying not to smile at her eight-year-old son.

"Uh-huh." Vanitas glared at the blond baby boy in his mother's arms. "He's smelly and gross and drools all over everything. And he'll probably pee on me."

"Well I guess you don't want Flood anymore, then. After all, he pees in his cage and you clean it out. That must be too gross for you to handle." She made like she was going to his room.

"No!" Vanitas reached out, clutching fistfuls of his mom's shirt. "Leave Flood alone!"

Aqua smiled, turning back to face him. "You take care of Flood because you love him, right?"

"…No, I take care of him 'cause he's my minion. Love's mushy and gross." The black-haired boy frowned and looked away. You couldn't love your minions. It made them have too much self-esteem, and then they'd stab you in the back. Not that Flood would ever do that to him, because the blue hamster was the best minion in the worlds.

Aqua put on a look of hurt. "So you don't even love me? Or your father?"

Vanitas let go of his mom and turned away, crossing his arms, and mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that, young man?" Aqua asked sternly, rocking her baby son in her arms when he started to fuss.

"I said I love you," Vanitas grumpily replied, then winced when his brother let out a squeaky cry. How could his mom love the little brat so much? All he did was pee and poop and eat and cry, and she still thought he was the light of her universe.

"Oh." His mother's face lightened again. "I love you too, Van," she said, appeasing him slightly, but that was ruined when she added, "And I love your father and your brother, too."

"And Flood?" He asked. Flood was way cooler than the baby brat; it wasn't fair to leave him out. Aqua laughed.

"And Flood. Just like you take care of Flood because you love him, I take care of you and Ven because I love both of you. Now, you need to learn how to take care of your brother too."

Vanitas's face instantly hardened back into a scowl. "I don't need to. I don't love him."

His mother put on her 'That was_ Too Far' _face. "Vanitas, he is your brother, and you will learn to love him. Just like you're going to learn how to change a diaper."

She knelt down and laid the fussing Ventus on a changing mat that she had previously spread over the floor. Vanitas took the chance to try and sneak back to his room, but she saw him with what could only be eyes in the back of her head.

"Vanitas Chi Fair, get back here _this instant," _she ordered, freezing him in his tracks. He sulked back, plopped down next to his mother, and hunched his shoulders.

"Babies are stupid," he muttered.

"Believe it or not, you were a baby too once," his mother informed him while undoing Ventus's diaper. Vanitas chose the _not _option. (At least, if he _was _a baby, he hadn't been nearly so slobbery and smelly as his brother.) "I had to do the same things for you that I do for Ven, and someday you'll take care of your children the same way."

Vanitas made a disgusted face. "Eww, I don't want to have kids."

"Your future wife might change your mind," his mom teased lightly.

"Pfft, I don't want to get married, either. Girls have cooties."

Aqua laughed, leaning over to kiss her grumpy, adorable son's forehead. "I hope you think that for a long time, Van. Now could you please pass me a baby wipe?"

He made another disgusted face as Aqua cleaned her younger son's bottom and clothed it with a fresh diaper.

"See, that didn't look so hard now, did it?" Aqua asked.

Vanitas's only reply was several loud gagging sounds.


	2. Mailbox

**A/N: This pairing is utterly crack, even platonic. XD I wish I could remember how I came up with this plunny…**

_xX~100 Eternal Moments~Xx_

_Set 5 – Unbreakable Chains_

_77 - Mailbox_

The mailbox was shaking.

As far as Vanitas knew, mailboxes weren't supposed to shake. Not that he knew a great deal about mailboxes, but it just didn't seem like a useful thing for one to do. Wondering if one of his less intelligent Unversed had trapped itself inside the blue letter depository, Vanitas opened it.

It spit a piece of paper out at him, and his instinctive reaction was to cleave the mailbox in two, which he did effortlessly with his keyblade. The confused citizens of Disney Town in the vicinity looked as if they wanted to question his spontaneous action, but one glare through his dark mask sent them back to a comfortable distance. Left in peace, Vanitas examined the paper in his hand.

_To Van, from Cinderella, _the envelope said. It took a long moment for the name to register, and even then it didn't make sense. Hadn't he run into her in the Castle of Dreams world?

Confused but intrigued in spite of… everything, Vanitas corridored to a world with more privacy to read his letter. The Keyblade Graveyard was obviously not an option, not with Xehanort or even Braig (actually, more often Braig) around to look over his shoulder. The second world that came to mind was Neverland, specifically the skull-shaped rock place.

Except for the lull of waves on stone and the annoying cries of seagulls fighting over fish, all was quiet. After shooting Dark Blizzaga at the squabbling seagulls, it was even peaceful. If Vanitas could ever feel at peace, that was. Though, he hadn't felt his usual level of internal discomfort that one day with Cinderella…

XXX

Was he out of the dark corridor? He didn't feel the bone-deep chill of darkness anymore, but he couldn't see more than a foot in front of his face.

"Stupid mask…" It kept others from seeing his face, but that was hardly useful if he couldn't see _their _faces. He yanked his helmet off and tossed it on the ground, but then he realized a bigger problem.

He choked on the cloud of dust that swirled up where his helmet hit the creaky wooden floor. Hacking and coughing, he struggled to catch his breath.

"What kind of – *_HACK*_ – stupid world did that – *_COUGH_*- old coot send me to this time?"

When the dust cleared and his eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, he could see that he was in some place where antiques went to die. There was an old china cabinet with both door hanging at crooked angles; a piano that, when he pressed a key, emitted the most discordant sound he'd ever hear; and a shattered full-body mirror that caught dusty fragments of his reflection.

He approached the mirror and wiped off a thick layer of dust, revealing his golden eyes staring back at him. Frowning, he ruffled his helmet-flattened hair into an acceptably spiky configuration and flashed a smirk before turning away.

"Wonder why he wants extra darkness in a dump like this…" With a shrug and a flick of his wrist he called a dozen Hareraisers into existence. Their fluffy ears would make good dustrags, and if he was going to spread darkness and negativity anyway, he might as well not choke on dust while he was doing it.

"Get cleaning, minions," he ordered. Meanwhile, he began searching for the exit to this room, which was much easier said than done. Towering pieces of dilapidated furniture created a labyrinthine path that wound to who knew where. There were no windows that he could see, and he couldn't use Fire magic for light without igniting the whole place.

The Hareraisers didn't do a half-bad job, surprisingly. They looked like a horde of literal dust bunnies before they were even close to finishing, so he had to make new ones about every five minutes, but it was still pretty effective. He could breathe much more easily now, and there wasn't as much dust obscuring his vision.

"Now if I can just find a way out of here…" He jumped onto a now-clean wooden dresser to get a better view, but it was a creaking noise followed by a voice that drew his attention.

"Oh?" It was a girl with a broom, and she was looking straight at him. Too late he realized he'd abandoned his helmet further back in the maze of furniture. "Who are you?"

"I…" He was so vulnerable, no tinted shield between them. He had half a mind to run away from this perfectly harmless girl, and he was painfully aware of every conflicted emotion etched out on his face. _No one _was supposed to see his face.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Cinderella." She curtsied politely. He blinked. No one was ever polite to him. And she especially shouldn't be, not when he practically broke into her house.

"I'm… Van…" He stopped himself before finishing his name. He never told anyone his name before… actually, he hadn't even _spoken _to anyone, except for his Unversed and Xehnaort and Ventus and Ventus's idiot friends, and they hardly counted.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Van." She smiled. Vanitas hated smiles, and he decided he hated being called Van, too. Why was he letting this Cinderella address him, anyway? He had darkness to spread. She'd shown him the door; he should kill her and move on.

But he didn't. He stood there stupidly on top of the dresser until Cinderella finally asked, "So, um, Van, could you please explain what you are doing in this attic?"

"Cleaning," he said easily. It wasn't even entirely a lie. But why was he still here, talking to her?

She laughed joyously, and he knew why he didn't attack her, or run, or doing anything remotely sensible: this was his first encounter with anyone who wasn't immediately terrified of, angry with, or repulsed by him. And though it stabbed his pride to admit it, the positive attention felt… well, it didn't feel bad.

"Wonderful! Did my stepmother hire you? Lady Tremaine?" Cinderella's eyes sparkled with so much light it almost made him sick. "Oh, it's been so long since I had any help… aside from the mice and birds, but there's only so much they can do."

Mice? Birds? Did this Cinderella have control over them the same way Vanitas controlled the Unversed? Maybe she wasn't as stupid or weak as he'd assumed, even if she reeked of light.

"Yeah, let's go with that," he agreed to her cover story, justifying it with the fact that he could spread darkness a lot more easily if she didn't try to kick him out now. It was dumb reasoning, and he knew it, but it wasn't hurting anything..

Suddenly one of his Hareraisers hopped up onto the dresser, wearing a coating of dust like it was a fuzzy sweater and slapping him with its floppy ears.

"Yeah, I got it, dust bunny." Vanitas rolled his eyes and cast a dexterous blast of Aero magic that sucked the dust off the Hareraiser, swirled it into a mini-tornado, and deposited it in a neat pile at Cinderella's feet.

She blinked, shocked speechless. "What… How…?"

He smirked smugly. "You ever heard of magic?"

"Yes, but… you're not a witch or a fairy…"

"_Obviously." _He scowled. "They're not the only ones that have magic. I'm a…" Huh. What did he call himself? No one had ever asked. "…I'm awesome," he finally decided.

She giggled at that. "And who is your friend?"

"I don't have—" Oh. She was looking at the Hareraiser, who was looking at him with big, red eyes like it was begging for a belly rub. "That's just a Hareraiser. They're pretty dumb."

Cinderella frowned. Vanitas decided that he hated that more than when she smiled.

"I mean, they're good at cleaning. They just need a lot of attention."

"_All _animals need attention. Come here, little one… Don't be afraid…"

It looked to Vanitas for permission, and when he nodded, it flung itself off the dresser and glomped Cinderella's shoe. _Traitor._

"Aww, you're so sweet," Cinderalla cooed. "I should make an outfit for you…"

His Unversed being shoved into dresses was the last thing he wanted, below Firaga-ing himself in the face.

"Aren't we supposed to be cleaning?" Vanitas grumbled.

"Oh!" She stopped scratching the Hareraiser's ears and stared at the broom in her hand like a recovering amnesiac. "I have to hurry, or I won't be done in time to go to the Royal Ball tonight! I was worried I might not make it, since I don't have a dress yet, but I can worry about that when we're done. I know we'll finish in time with you helping me, Van."

That smile; such blind trust. Maybe she was an idiot. But he'd never had someone's trust to betray, such a heavy invisible weight that for some reason he didn't want off of his shoulders. Maybe it was all a scheme; she was manipulating his emotions the same way she manipulated his Hareraiser and her Mice and Birds. If his will were any weaker he would've believed it, but he was _way _above being manipulated.

"Let's just get cleaning." He was wasting a whole day of darkness for this, so she'd better make it worth it.

While she made careful brushstrokes in the dust with her broom, he cast more Aero magic in the form of mini-tornadoes. They took more focus than he wanted to expend, though; it was easier to leave it to the Hareraisers. He just wanted to talk to Cinderella.

She sang while she worked, a sweet melody that sounded like ice cream tasted, even though the words were dully repetitive.

"_Sing sweet nightingale, sing sweet nightingale, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah…"_

"How do you sing like that?" Vanitas asked.

"Oh, it's easy, really." Cinderella blushed, or at least he thought she did. It was hard to tell in the dim light. "But I'm not sure how to explain it…"

Vanitas shrugged. "Whatever." It wasn't like he really wanted to learn how to sing; he just wanted her attention. "So why are we cleaning all this junk, anyway?"

"It's one of the chores Stepmother needs me to do before I can go to the Ball." She sighed a girly sigh.

She mentioned a Ball earlier. _What's the big deal about a stupid ball? It's probably not even the bouncy kind._

"Why do you want to go to this 'Ball' thing?"

"It's a dance being held in the Castle." She smiled dreamily. "I've seen that Castle out my window most of my life, but I've never been there. And there's the chance that I may meet some new friends, maybe even a… special friend…" She blushed. Vanitas had no clue what she was talking about. "I haven't made a human friend since… I can't even remember. Well, today I met." A smile brightens her face. "Thank you for being here, Van."

Wait, she wasn't implying he was her _friend, _was she? No. Wimps like Ventus made friends. Vanitas was a heart of pure darkness. This had gone too far.

"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly the kind of guy you want as a friend," he found himself saying as he climbed an old bookshelf and leapt from the other side, landing catlike on the creaky ground. She followed him through a slim gap between the shelves and an old piano.

"What do you mean?" He saw her confused blink in his peripheral vision. "You're caring, hardworking, even magical. And you have the loveliest eyes."

"Huh?" He spun around, completely bewildered. Out of all the comments he could have made, though, he chose, "My _eyes?"_

"Of course." She smiled. "I've only seen that color in my father's heirlooms. Where do you come from, Van?"

If that last comment took by surprise, the question practically knocked him over.

His gaze hardened; he caught a glimpse of himself in the same broken mirror he entered by. There was his helmet lying hollow on the floor. They had cleaned their way all the way back here.

"I come from someplace you should never go."

Scooping up his helmet and shoving it over his spiky hair, he waved his arm to open a dark corridor.

"Wait!" She called as he started towards it. "Where are you going?"

"Back to where I came from."

"Will you come back?" Her blue eyes were pretty too, he realized, but that was because there was a soul behind them. His gold eyes held no soul.

"No," he forced the word out. "No, I won't."

XXX

_Dear Van,_

_I'm sorry if I offended you in any way. It wasn't my place to pry. I would sincerely like to see you again, but I understand if you don't feel the same. Still, I hope my Fairy Godmother finds a way to send this letter to you._

_I still have to thank you, Van, for helping me clean the attic. It may have been a simple thing for you and your magic, but without you I could never have finished, and dress or no dress, I would never have made it to the Ball._

_You most likely don't want to bothered with the details of my life, but I want you to know that I am happy, and I will not forget you, even if I never see you again. You were my friend when I needed one most._

_You are still my friend, if you would like to be._

_Sincerely,_

_Cinderella_

XXX

Vanitas shook his head slowly, unable to move anything else. All he had wanted was to forget her, the one person who showed him what kindness felt like. And doomed him to an even greater depth of misery, now that he knew there was a different way to feel.

_You could go back,_ he thought to himself. _One corridor, and you could see her…_

And have to rip himself away again? What was he, a masochist?"

No.

He summoned an orb of Fire in his palm, watched it slowly eat Cinderella's neat handwriting until it was nothing more than dark ask, blowing out towards the sea.

He did not need a friend. He couldn't afford to.

**A/N: I apologize if Van is OOC anywhere in this; it's hard to make him be even semi-nice to anyone without adjusting his character. ^^;**

**Lol, I realized the name for this pairing would be VanElla, or Vanilla. XD XD And go figure, I end up writing this before I manage to come up with any Terella, a pairing I actually like for something besides being random crack. XD**

**I know Cinderalla falls in romantic love before she sent the letter, but since most of this story was before that, I hope that doesn't count…? orz**


	3. Read

**A/N: More canonverse? :O **

_xX~100 Eternal Moments~Xx_

_Set 5 – Unbreakable Chains_

_78 – Read_

By default Vanitas figured all little kids were idiots, but this particular little kid had to be especially idiotic. The first time Vanitas saw him, he was just standing in one of Radiant Garden's streets, staring quizzically at a twitching cluster of Floods. Some old scientist with brittle blond hair had scolded the boy and dragged him away before the Floods had a chance to tear him apart. The second time the boy had perched on a ledge overlooking the Fountain Court – how he got up there, Vanitas had no idea – and had scribbled in a leather-bound notebook as he watched several Tank Topplers down below. The third time – this time – he was wading in the shallows below the Fountains, neck craned up at the glowing purple Prize Pods floating above his head.

_Nobody _was supposed to find his Prize Pods.

Vanitas was about to drop from the ledge above, but something stopped him: the Prize Pods weren't fleeing. He had specifically designed his treat-producing Unversed to flee after a certain amount of time in the presence of a living creature, so that Vanitas himself would have enough time to harvest their desserts, but no one else would. But these Prize Pods were just floating contentedly, even when the slate-haired boy reached up to touch their spherical bodies. The particular Pod he touched dropped a Nebula Nectar into his hand.

Vanitas couldn't just kill him now. He had to know what this idiotic kid could do to make his Unversed act so… _tame._

He dropped from the ledge, landing in the shallows with a splash. The boy didn't seem to notice.

"Hey," Vanitas called, hoping to draw his attention. When all the kid did was collect a couple of Rocket Sodas, Vanitas called louder, "Hey, idiot. I'm talking to you."

He finally turned around, bearing a _'What do you want, idiot?' _expression. Vanitas would know. He was quite used to making it himself.

"Get your hands off my Prize Pods," he ordered. At the sound of their master's voice, said Prize Pods began to flutter frantically, some dropping a few extra treats before vanishing into thin air. "Great, there goes my ice cream…"

The little boy crossed his arms, shooting Vanitas a glare through his long bangs. Who did the imp think he was, staring down a scary masked stranger? Didn't his parents teach him better? And parents probably wouldn't let their kid chase after monsters, even ones that gave them candy. Not that Vanitas knew much about parents.

"Look, idiot." Vanitas summoned his keyblade. "I could kill you right now."

The kid didn't look impressed. In fact, he might have even raised an eyebrow; it was hard to tell under his hair.

Vanitas laughed. "What are you going to do, stare me to death?"

The boy shrugged.

"Are you mute or something?"

Another shrug.

"Well you better tell me something about what you did to my Prize Pods, or I'm going to kill you."

Despite Vanitas's threat, the boy reached into the pocket of his white lab coat with no urgency and pulled out a leather-bound notebook. Vanitas briefly glimpsed his Unversed symbol etched into the cover before the boy flipped to a page with a well-drawn diagram of a Prize Pod.

"What is it?" Vanitas asked.

The boy rolled his eyes as if to say, _'You can read, can't you?'_

Rolling his eyes in return – not that the boy could see – Vanitas snatched the notebook. Unfortunately he couldn't read the tiny handwriting through the dark tint of his mask. What did he care if some kid saw his face, anyway? After dissolving his mask, he could read the notes the boy had kept:

'_These creatures are different from the others. They smell sweet. They don't like it when that red-haired boy chases them. They only appear in the corner by the Fountains, behind the stairs. Through many experiments, I have observed that they are friendly if I approach them slowly and give them something sweet. They drop treats when I pet them. I have learned how to mix them together to create different flavors of ice cream.'_

"…You write too fancy for a kid," Vanitas said, glancing up at the boy. Or down. He was really short. It made Vanitas feel tall for once. "What's your name?"

Taking the book back, he flipped to a blank page, took a pencil from his pocket and wrote, _'My name is Ienzo.'_

"Alright, Een-zo," Vanitas tried to pronounce, "you're not as dumb a kid as you look. So how about you making me some ice cream?"

After considering a moment, Ienzo wrote, _'As long as you tell me the names of these creatures.'_

Eh, it was easier than threatening him.

"Deal."


	4. Pencil

**A/N: Random high school AU.**

_xX~100 Eternal Moments~Xx_

_Set 5 – Unbreakable Chains_

_79 – Pencil_

He couldn't figure it out. Days turned into weeks turned into months of him watching her pencil kiss the paper, watching beautiful pictures flow out like magic. Math class after math class after math class. Other students learned how to factor polynomials. She built a clocktower from grey graphite lines. Other students learned rational functions. She breathed life into a paper flower. Other students learned sine, cosine, and tangent. She sketched three figures in darkly-shaded coats that were so realistic, he swore he could hear their laughter.

Vanitas dreaded the day his teacher – what was his name? – would rearrange the seating chart and move him away from Naminé. Or the day she decided to actually pay attention in class. Or the day she noticed him watching her… but he needed her to notice him. He needed to ask her something.

It wasn't until one day when she was absently tapping her pencil's eraser against the desk that he got his chance. The pencil bounced wrong and flew off the side of her desk, rolling under Vanitas's chair. As the teacher graded papers behind his desk and Naminé searched quietly for the wayward pencil, he picked it up and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped so badly her knee hit the underside of her desk.

"Didn't think I was _that _scary," Vanitas remarked, offering her back her pencil and hiding his dismay.

"Oh. Um, thank you…?"

"Vanitas." She probably didn't even know he existed, much less his name.

"I'm Naminé," she whispered back with a small, probably forced smile.

"I know," he replied, then mentally kicked himself. That's not how you should answer when someone introduced herself, right? It wasn't like many people ever talked to him… "How do you do it?" He asked his question to change the subject. If he was going to do it it might as well be now, anyway, while Ven's snoring covered their conversation.

"Do what?" Naminé asked.

"Draw things that look so real." He pointed to the corner of her worksheet, where waves washed over a seashell.

She blushed so brightly, Vanitas would've thought it was painted on if he didn't know any better. "…You notice?"

It was probably weird, but he was oblivious as usual. When she saw the coast was clear, she replied, "I don't know… it's just something I do. I feel like I always have…"

Vanitas looked from her hands, pale, thin fingers absently twirling a pencil – artist's hands – to his own hands that had never created anything, unless he counted that purple bruise on Terra's jaw last year. He'd thought… he wasn't sure what he thought. That she would teach him? That something beautiful could come from his anger-ruled hands?

He clenched his fists, fingernails digging into his palms. _Don't get mad at her. It's not her fault you're a failure. It's not her fault all you can think about is hurting people, except not now because I'm thinking about her…_

"Draw me," he said suddenly.

"What?" She asked.

"You heard me. I want you to draw me."

"Um… okay," she agreed nervously.

It took three days, at the end of which Vanitas's patience was even more nonexistent than before. The whole time she wouldn't let him look at her sketchbook, but she kept stealing glances at him between elegant strokes of her pencil.

"I think it's done," Naminé whispered. _Finally._

"Show me."

She slid the sketchbook onto his desk. He didn't know what to think.

It was him, but it wasn't. The real him didn't smile. The real him had never been to the beach. And the real him didn't have any friends. But through the window of her greyscale drawing, he saw himself smiling as he relaxed in the tide with Naminé.

"It might not be exactly what you pictured… I'm sorry…"

"Shut up. It's perfect."

It was difficult to move his eyes from the artwork, but the artist was just as beautiful. And then, with less difficulty than he expected, he smiled.


End file.
